The best $20,000 I ever spent: Starbucks every day of my adult life (millennial barf alert)

Vox ^ | 4/9/2019 | Mae Rice

[simpson96]

"Paying for a tiny dose of luxury doesn’t make me an irresponsible millennial."

I’m in Starbucks right now, drinking what I always get: a venti iced coffee with hazelnut, soy, and caramel drizzle. It’s a case study in dribbly brown, a drink both Elle Woods and Dr. Evil would order, but it tastes great and costs less than $5 in the Twin Cities, unless you’re at the airport.

I order it every day, except when the temperature falls below zero, or if I’ve earned a free drink on Starbucks’s rewards app. With a reward, I get the latte version of my drink: a triple venti hazelnut soy latte with whipped cream. (If it’s not triple, it just tastes like milk; the hot venti is Starbucks’s most milk-diluted beverage size.)

If I paid for it, that latte would cost about $7 — as much as my normal iced coffee and a toasted sprouted grain bagel with cream cheese. I would never spend that amount on coffee alone. I have been spending some money on coffee, though, every day of my adult life. Even when I worked as a barista at Starbucks, I came right back after my shifts to drink Starbucks coffee. In the 12 years since I turned 18 and left home for college, I have spent about $20,000 at Starbucks.

Personal finance guru Suze Orman recently compared coffee habits like mine to “peeing 1 million dollars down the drain.” Multiple online calculators will furnish you with more precise dollar amounts, if you want them. My $20,000 expenditure seems especially extreme to me right now because I’m in the final year of an MFA program, and my annual stipend is $18,120 before tax

[sheana]

I travel back and forth between Ventura and Bakersfield a lot. McDonalds drive thru is my go to. $1 for a great cup of coffee and I don’t even have to get out of the car. If I feel like getting out of the car my fave is the French vanilla cappuccinos at the gas stations $1.79 or so for a huge one. And they’re delicious.

[mumblypeg]

Eeek. Wild eyes & clenched teeth.
Needs to switch to decaf before she kills somebody.

[Oatka]

I always get: a venti iced coffee with hazelnut, soy, and caramel drizzle.

That's not coffee, that's a soda.

[boop]

"I’m in the final year of an MFA program, and my annual stipend is $18,120 before tax"

At age 30.

A normal person could have a doctorate by that age.

And how will she support herself on a MFA degree?

[Chode]

the only time i ever spend that kind of money on coffee it's got Baileys in it...

[fredhead]

Served in the Navy for 20 years, and worked for the Navy on the ships for the last 20.

The Navy used to run on coffee. Now it seems it runs on Red Bull.

[old-ager]

agreed